Novamedia / Postcode Lotteries – No.3 December 18, 2014 Netherlands – £470.3m For a Postcode Lottery player their address could be the luckiest thing that ever happened to them. Anyone who wants to play provides their postcode which then becomes their ticket number. Using the postcode means it’s not just one participant who wins a prize, but all the players in an entire street [...]
The art of theft: Why do thieves steal famous paintings when they’re so hard to sell? October 28, 2014 On a freezing Stockholm evening just before Christmas 2000, a group of six to eight Middle Eastern men put into action a plan they’d been working on for months. The group parked cars in the middle of the three central roads leading to the Swedish National Museum and set them ablaze. As fire engines [...]
Twitter sues US government for the right to release surveillance information October 7, 2014 Twitter is taking on the US government. The social media giant has filed a lawsuit against the FBI and the Department of Justice for restrictions preventing it from revealing the extent of US government surveillance of the site. Twitter argues the prohibitions are “unconstitutional” and deny its users a sufficient level of transparency. [...]
What this UN boss gets wrong on drug prohibition March 13, 2014 As representaives from countries around the world prepare to meet in Vienna to discuss how to tackle the $320bn (£192bn) drug trade, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has defended the current system of drug control. Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Yury Fedotov said: I would not say [...]
Lloyds settlement latest example of the shadow regulatory state September 28, 2014 The announced settlement between the American and British authorities and Lloyds Banking Group, in which the bank will pay almost $370m to US and UK authorities, is the latest major fallout from claims that multiple international banks profited by manipulating the London Interbank Offer Rate (Libor), a key financial benchmark embedded in contracts around the [...]
War on drugs is unwinnable says Clegg February 4, 2014 Nick Clegg has declared the war on drugs unwinnable and that a fundamental rethink of current policy is needed. Speaking on a visit to Colombia, the deputy prime minister said that the UK must end the conspiracy of silence surrounding the failure of prohibition, telling the BBC "If you are anti-drugs you should be pro-reform." [...]
Geneva’s bank opacity is melting like Swiss chocolate – Bottom Line August 28, 2014 When historians come to write the history of Swiss banking in the 21st century, the mid-2010s are likely to be some of the better thumbed chapters. The release of results this week by Pictet, Lombard Odier and smaller rival Mirabaud has lifted the veil of secrecy on the traditionally discreet world of Swiss private banking. [...]
Fraud squad launches criminal probe into the UK’s foreign exchange market July 21, 2014 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has opened a full-blown criminal investigation into alleged price rigging in the UK's £3tn-a-day foreign exchange (forex) market, the regulator confirmed today. The probe will look at "fraudulent conduct in the foreign exchange market", according to an SFO statement. The claims centre around allegations that traders would manipulate the flow [...]
New York Times backs legalisation of marijuana in the US July 27, 2014 US newspaper the New York Times has backed the legalisation of Marijuana in an opinion piece published today and further articles on the issue due to be published over the next week in a series its calling "High Time." The newspaper’s editorial board likened the ban on marijuana, which has been illegal in the country [...]
“DIY” policing – how do the London forces fare? September 4, 2014 You would probably expect London-based police forces to be the main culprits when it comes to the "emerging trend" of asking victims of crime to carry out their own investigations – but you'd be wrong. Sort of. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary admitted this morning that high-volume crimes are "on the verge of being [...]